7am... the sounds of beautiful slumber are replaced with the sounds of plumbing, my friend has decided the day is underway.. We leave the Lazy 8 at around 8:15 and head for the local ihop, breakfast is good in America, today we are going to Mexico, on the way to the freeway we spot a cool miniature golf course with giant Easter Island Heads and monkeys with animatronic tails.. unfortunately the place isn't open & time is at a premium... back in the boat & away we go..

Just outside Tucson we stop in at the San Xavier Del Bac Mission, as it's Sunday there is a service in full flight so we can't look 'round the actual church so we walk up the small hill next door & look at the grotto instead, it has small momentos of dead people pinned to its gates, some quite personal & poignant. There was nothing to keep us here so we got back on the road..

Onward to Mexico, arriving in the American town of Nogales we took a wrong turn & found ourselves trapped in one way traffic crossing into Mexican Nogales.. this was not good as our plan had us parking on the US side & walking across, so we drove into Mexico, turned around & drove straight out again.. reassuring the border guard on the way that we had in fact only been in Mexico 10 minutes and hadn't left the car once.. honest mate.. 

So after parking the boat we walked into Mexico, nothing much had changed since my last visit to the country, in fact I could have sworn the same people were on the street and even some of the parked cars looked familiar..   My only other experience of Mexico to date had been at Tijuana, Nogales is on a smaller scale & didn't quite as aggressive, the poverty however was equally apparent, I don't feel comfortable "holidaying in other peoples misery" as our Johnny once said, but we walked around for a while & went into a few of the shops.. My friend purchased some Vanilla essence & we decided that we'd had enough and should make our way back to the US, just past the border we got ice cream.. mine managed to cram at least a pint of the stuff into a giant waffle cone.. evil.

Funny how when 2 people decide that sleeping in a concrete WigWam would be fun the 200 mile gap between decision and TeePee seems insignificant.. A quick call to the WigWam Village assertained that whilst they were strictly closed on a Sunday if we knocked on the door of a neighbouring house we could have a key.. and so it was.. when we arrived the whole place was shrouded in darkness, but the nice lady assured us we can check in just before we leave and that WigWam number 5 was indeed ours for the night... and what a nice WigWam it is! no phone jack though which is why you won't get this until a day late.. Dinner at a deserted Mexican/American restaurant provded us with Tacos and Sopaipilla bread which has ended the day.. a quick drive around Holbrook (which sits on Route 66 and is the location of the Wigwam Village) photographing the neon signs & it's all back to the TeePee encampment for bed... 

Tomorrow we're off to the Grand Canyon... or some caves.. or a petrified forest or something... decide in the car.

-S.
-knackered